Commercial and industrial HVAC in Toronto. Planned with the building.

No. Ontario's public registry (QuARTS, checked October 30, 2026) lists the firm's classes as House, Small Buildings, Large Buildings and HVAC-House. HVAC-House covers heating, cooling and ventilation in a house; in a shop, office or industrial building those systems follow Part 6 of the Building Code and belong to the Building Services class, which the firm does not hold. A professional engineer or a Building Services designer designs and signs them. We check who may design the work, draw the building around it where the Architects Act lets us (a whole building, after the work, of up to 3 storeys and 600 m² gross area with no restaurant or other assembly use: s. 11(3)(a)), and coordinate their drawings and ours into one permit set.

Expect one. Toronto Building's “When Do I Need a Building Permit?” page lists installing or modifying heating systems among the work that needs a permit, and its examples of work that needs none, replacing a furnace or boiler or adding cooling, apply only in a house. The City's 2026 stand-alone HVAC fees include a flat $386.62 for replacing a boiler, furnace or air-conditioning unit. If the new unit is heavier, larger or in a new spot, a professional engineer (or, in a building small enough not to need one, a Building Structural designer) checks the roof structure, and the zoning limits on rooftop equipment apply.

Yes. Where the whole building, after the work, has no more than 3 storeys and 600 m² of floor area on all its floors above ground, is used for business, personal services, shops or industry, and does not house an engineered process, the Professional Engineers Act does not require an engineer, so a designer registered in Building Services may design the HVAC. A bigger building needs a professional engineer. The test is the whole building, so a 150 m² unit in a 2,000 m² plaza is usually over the line; only a firewall with no access opening or building service through it lets the area be measured to that wall. A restaurant, bar or other assembly use anywhere in the building also takes it outside the exception. The Architects Act draws nearly the same line around our part: past those limits, or with a restaurant or other assembly use in the building, the roof plan, screens, shafts and fire separations are an architect's work (an architect's or engineer's in an industrial building), and we draw only interior work that leaves the structure, fire separations, exits and exterior walls unchanged.

If the HVAC goes in with a building permit application, nothing extra unless there is a specialty system. On its own it is a stand-alone mechanical permit: in 2026, $1.55/m² for offices and shops, flat fees from $214.79 for smaller jobs such as an added unit heater or exhaust fan, and $463.95 for a kitchen exhaust, spray booth or dust collector. Our fee and the HVAC designer's are separate.

A professional engineer. The Building Code requires the ventilation for commercial cooking equipment to meet NFPA 96, the standard for ventilation and fire protection in commercial kitchens. The Professional Engineers Act counts eating or drinking as an assembly use, and its small-building exception does not cover assembly, so in a building with a restaurant the engineering, the kitchen exhaust included, is a professional engineer's at any size. On its own the exhaust is a $463.95 special ventilation permit (2026). The Architects Act treats the restaurant the same way: its design needs an architect or, for a restaurant for up to 100 people in a building of up to 3 storeys and 600 m² gross area, an OAA Licensed Technologist. Its exception for interior work covers only work that touches no structure, fire separation, main entrance, public corridor, exit or exterior wall and adds no floor space. We can tell you which applies before anything is drawn.

Yes. That is what the firm's HVAC-House class covers: heating, cooling and ventilation designed to Sections 9.32 and 9.33 of the Building Code for a house of up to two dwelling units, where each system serves one dwelling unit (or is radiant heating in a house with a secondary suite), drawn into the same permit set as an addition, a basement apartment or a new home. One forced-air system shared by both units falls under Part 6 instead, outside that class.

Whoever designs them. A professional engineer seals theirs; a Building Services designer's drawings carry their name, registration and qualification numbers, signature and a statement taking responsibility, and they file Schedule 1 (Designer Information) with the application. Our drawings carry BCIN 25897 – 41741 the same way. Where the Building Code calls for an architect's or engineer's review on site, the architect or engineer and the owner (or the owner's agent) sign the Commitment to General Reviews, the form in which the architect or engineer agrees to review the work as it is built.